


the best days of our lives.

by augmenti



Category: IU (Musician), K-pop, T-Ara
Genre: F/F, Fluff, High School AU, typical high school pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-24 06:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20701688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/augmenti/pseuds/augmenti
Summary: if you love someone, let them know.





	the best days of our lives.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firequakes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firequakes/gifts).

> originally written in 2011, archiving here with minor edits!

Jieun has always believed in honesty.

Telling lies has never done anything for her but get her in trouble, like the time she snuck kimchi and then lied when her mom asked her about it. In the end she was still the one kneeling in the living room with her arms held high, aching all over.

But what she feels for Jiyeon isn’t something she can even tell the truth about, because in truth, she doesn’t even know what she wants to say, or how to say it. Deep down she knows there’s a complicated reason for it. The swoop of her stomach, the butterflies in her gut. All this means something, and that something makes her hands shake. 

She’s not particularly close to Jiyeon, other than when they eat at the same table during lunch because they have the same friends, or when they’ll sometimes chat during class about homework. Jieun usually has singing and choir after school while Jiyeon’s in almost every sport team she can be on. Once in a while, Jieun catches her in the gym while she walks by. Every time she does she ends up staring, jaw slack, as Jiyeon throws her opponent onto the mat. It looks so easy with her - one hand on their shoulder and one hand behind their knee and then -_ bam_ \- Jiyeon is victorious.

Every single time, she ends up turning away with her cheeks flushed and her heart fluttering and she gets in trouble for singing too fast in choir, because her brain is thinking of Jiyeon’s victorious smile and the sweat trickling down her neck and soaking into her t-shirt. They have to redo the song at least three times before she finally stops thinking of the way little wisps of hair stick to her forehead long enough to get the tempo right. 

Eventually, she gets up the nerve to ask someone about these feelings.

“Mom?” Jieun slides up to her at the kitchen counter, wearing a t-shirt that falls down over her thighs and all but hides her shorts from view. Her mom’s making kimchi, and the spicy scent clears her nose. “I think there’s something wrong with me.” She holds her shoulders as she leans on her elbows on the counter.

Her mom stops cooking and turns around to look at her, eyebrows pinched and her kind mouth pursed in concern, gloved hands covered in spicy red sauce.

“But it’s nothing bad! It’s just, weird. It only happens around this one person and it makes me go all fluffy inside.” Like a marshmallow, she thinks, and bites her lip so she doesn’t do something embarrassing like say _that_ or laugh out loud.

Her mom just laughs, shoulders sagging in relief, and turns back to her work.

“You like your friend, don’t you?” She asks, and Jieun watches the line of her shoulders jerk as she pulls kimchi apart.

Jieun considers it for all of a second before she nods. “Of course I do.”

“Well, you probably like him as more than just a friend then, dear.”

Jieun blinks at her, and then everything sort of just clicks into place like the last piece of the puzzle has been laid out in front of her.

“Oh!” She all but smacks herself in the forehead, steals some kimchi, and runs upstairs before her mom can make her help.

“Thanks mom!” She calls down the stairs and it’s not until she’s spent at least five minutes looking at the picture of her and Jiyeon on her phone that she realizes her biggest dilemma - her mom said him.

-

Two weeks later, Jieun’s staying late in the choir room, practicing her solo for the upcoming concert. The room is a deserted mess of sheet music and clusters of chairs and music stands, and there’s a drawing on the chalkboard of a dragon burning a village that no one wants to erase. But even though the music room isn’t perfect, she loves it in a way so much different from her bedroom at home - she belongs here when she fills it with her voice more than any other place on earth.

She closes her eyes as she lets the music flow out and through her from her abdomen, her fingers pressing piano keys, and she’s almost forgotten about all of her worries when someone starts clapping. She hits a flat and her voice fails in a squeak. The bottom drops out of her stomach and she whips herself around on the bench, banging her knee on the underside of the piano.

Her heart stops when she sees Jiyeon in the doorway, looking out of place in her varsity jacket. Yet there’s an easy grace to the way she leans against the wall, all grace even in the low light. Her teeth shine pearly white against the dark. She wears no makeup, her hair is in a messy ponytail, and yet she looks divine even in the middle of the mess of music stands and chairs. Jieun stands up and pulls at the bottom of her shirt nervously, as though it could hide her from the world.

“That was great!” Jiyeon’s teeth sparkle when she smiles, and just like that, Jieun’s heart swells five sizes too big.

“You think so?” She stammers out, pulling at a stiff muscle in her shoulder. Jiyeon crosses the gap between them and actually grabs her hand, pulling it and shaking it energetically. Jieun’s thinks of how sweaty her hands are and how Jiyeon now knows but all she can do is stare with her cheeks flushed.

“Of course, your voice is seriously awesome,” Jiyeon says. “Should I get your autograph now, or later?”

Jieun laughs, the laugh that makes her sort of die a little when it comes out of her mouth, all snorts and giggles, but Jiyeon doesn’t seem to mind because she laughs too - and, God, her laugh sounds like birdsong. It makes her heart soar. 

-

Within a week, Jieun feels like she’s known Jiyeon all of her life. She knows that she’s even better at taekwondo than she is at wrestling, which she thought was pretty impossible, and that she can break a huge stack of boards with just her fist and stand up smiling. She learns that she loves food and eats more than her dad. Jieun absently concocts a bunch of theories on how she’s really supergirl and has a super fast metabolism to keep her strength.

She also discovers that Jiyeon has a beautiful voice, when one day, after school, she goes to meet Jiyeon after wrestling practice is over. She finds her singing to herself in the locker room. Jieun swallows when she realizes that Jiyeon is half naked, and her legs look like they could go for miles under her t-shirt. Her hair is wet and sparkling.

The voice, though. It’s low and husky and it warms Jieun right up, starting somewhere in her stomach and slipping like hot chocolate through the rest of her body, and she never wants that feeling to go away, like being hugged, without any arms around her. That’s the only way she can describe Jiyeon’s voice.

Then she stumbles over her shoes and exposes herself and Jiyeon turns around with the brightest grin as she pulls on a pair of shorts. “Hey, want to get ice cream?”

All Jieun wants to do is say how much she loves her, but she bites the inside of her cheek. “Only if they have rainbow,” she smiles back, heart aching.

-

“What do you think frogs would say if they could talk?” Jiyeon asks as they walk down the street on their way home from school, so close together that sometimes their hands brush together.

Jieun isn’t paying attention, because she’s thinking of how on earth she can ever tell her best friend in the whole wide world how special she makes her feel, because hiding her feelings is eating her alive and she doesn’t know if she can keep it up forever. Her palms are always sweaty and her skin always tingles after Jiyeon has touched her, and sometimes she makes the mistake of leaning a bit too far when she’s whispering a secret and brushes her lips against Jiyeon’s skin, and she’s terrified that Jiyeon will find out and that she’ll lose her, for good.

“Hey,” Jiyeon pokes her in the side, and Jieun jumps, swivelling around to meet her gaze. “What are you thinking about?” They walk past the house with the annoying yapping dog when Jieun puts a hand on her arm and stops her in her tracks.

“What do you do if you love someone?” Jieun asks, desperately, because Jiyeon knows the answer to everything she doesn’t know and maybe, just maybe, she’ll know about this too, just like she knows what street vendor is the best and what ice cream parlor has both rainbow flavoring and chocolate inside the waffle cones.

“Love, or like?” Jiyeon asks, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She glances away, towards the street, eyes flicking after the cars zooming by. When she looks back, her gaze is a magnetic pull.

“Love,” Jieun says, mouth dry. “Definitely love.”

“Oh,” Jiyeon keeps walking, sticking her hands in her pockets. “I think I’d let them know.”

There’s a slight lift to her voice that Jieun can’t really identify, but she stumbles after her in a sort of daze. Jiyeon is so much braver than she is. She’s the one that would pick her up when she fell down, or help her carry all the music stands back to the choir room after a performance when the other choir members were too busy, and she feels so safe around her, all the time. She can’t imagine feeling like this with anyone else in the entire world.

“Jiyeon, I-”

Her tongue becomes too thick and she stumbles over her words when she bites her tongue. She wraps her arms around herself and wonders if she’s about to make the biggest mistake of her life. Would losing her be worth it? Would Jiyeon refuse her? Or would it be worse if she acknowledged her feelings but couldn’t return them and -- and then she just trailed after her like a puppy forever. She’d have to watch her fall in love. She’d have to judge the boy to see if he was worthy. She’d have to watch over her if she got her heart broken. A part of her isn’t sure she’s strong enough for this. The boy would have to be able to eat more than her, and be able to beat her in a fight and not feel bad about it, and they’d have to be a good friend too, because these are things she knows are important to Jiyeon, and they’re things that Jieun won’t ever be.

But Jiyeon has turned around and waiting for her to continue now, but she’s already started to tell her - can she possibly even say it, when her heart is beating so fast that she thinks she might die and there’s a giant iron fist clenching her guts from the inside. “Um,” she tugs on her shirt sleeves.

She also knows that she can’t lie, because nothing good in her life comes from lies.

“I love you,” Jieun croaks out, her voice barely above a whisper, right as a bus comes rushing by and some stupid, annoying dog yaps itself to near death.

Jiyeon raises an eyebrow and leans in, trying to catch it. Jieun can smell her vanilla lotion, but more than that, she can see the way she looks at her suddenly, like she just put two and two together. Her eyelids are heavy and her eyelashes are curled and dark, and she’s staring right into her eyes with a gaze so intense that she’s sure it’s staring right into her soul and exposing all of her secrets.

And then the most amazing thing happens, when, instead of pulling back, Jiyeon just keeps leaning forward until she has to reach out and grasp her by the arms. Until she’s stepping forward and bridging the gap between them.

Their lips meet. There is no ground beneath her feet and she’s sure she would be falling if Jiyeon’s hands weren’t gripping hers aThe weight on her chest that’s been there since the first time Jiyeon turned around in her seat and whispered _help_ in class dissipates like a sparkler. 

Jieun doesn’t know if she’s dreaming or awake. But then Jiyeon pulls back, just enough so that their noses and foreheads are touching and she can see nothing but the wholesome chocolate of her eyes.

“I love you, too.” Jiyeon says, and Jieun is stuck by how much the words change everything. There’s a light in Jiyeon’s eyes when Jieun bounces on the balls of her feet to try and kiss her. Their teeth knock together. 

They burst into laughter, reeling back a few paces from one another, slipping out of each other's arms. 

But it’s only for a second, and then she’s enveloped by the smell of vanilla and Jiyeon’s hair smells like orange cream and is up her nose. Then she does the worst thing ever - she bursts into tears and isn’t even quite sure why, but they don’t stop coming. 

“Why are you crying, oh my God?” Jiyeon laughs a little. 

Jieun shakes her head helplessly. She opens her mouth to speak but to her horror her breath comes out in great, shuddering gasps. Tears and snot mix down her face and she’s just so happy that her chest won't stop swelling, and she swears, if she doesn’t keep a tight hold on her she’s going to fly off like a balloon.

Jiyeon must know anyway, because she holds her face so tenderly in her hands so that she doesn’t pop and wipes all of the tears and all of the snot carefully off her face with the back of her sleeve - and how gross it would be, except then she takes her by the hand and links their fingers together and pulls her down the sidewalk.

Jieun presses her fingers against her lips and feels how warm they are and wonders, as Jiyeon squeezes her hand, if this is the best day of her life.

-

It isn’t, but it’s the definite beginning of all of them.


End file.
